Doctor Who 9x13: The Husbands of River Song

When a companion leaves, there is always a void in the Doctor's life which will only be filled a new companion joins him. With Clara gone, who better to bridge the transition than his wife, River Song? The story surrounding her identity was resolved in the Matt Smith era, but there was still that fannish compulsion to want to see her interact with the new Doctor. Apparently, even Russell T Davies was  gunning for this. Steven Moffat has finally capitulated and the episode produced from this fan wish is a really great one.

The Doctor and River are reunited on a snowy planet. River and her accomplice, Nardole, are trying to steal a rare diamond which is embedded in the head of King Hydroflax. The plan quickly goes awry, so the Doctor and River are forced to use Hydroflax' living, disembodied head to carry the diamond away. It is not long before Hydroflax' robotic body pursues them to the Tardis and from there to a Space Liner full of genocidal criminals. River is unable to sell the diamond, but a meteorite strike hits the Space Liner, they are able to prevent Hydroflax' followers from continuing his mission.

River spends most of the story unaware that the white haired man travelling with her is a future incarnation of the husband. The existence of the War Doctor pays another dividend to the show as she thinks that she knows all thirteen of the Doctor's lives. This gives the Doctor an opportunity to see what River is up to when he is not involved. It turns out that she has more than one husband on the go. It's nice to see the Doctor wander into an adventure of River Song. Seeing her act on her own makes her feel more like a real person. Alex Kingston is on fine form as River Song, unfettered by a complex back story. Certain lines of River's dialogue might come across as heartless on paper, but Alex Kingston is able to make  River still seem likable despite such lines.

River's husbands are certainly different. Greg Davies plays King Hydroflax with just the right amount of OTT. A straightforward angry dictator with no scruples. Calling him a pantomime villain might sound like a criticism, but it is just right for a Christmas special and fits the tone of the story. River's other husband, Raoul, is a good looking, and Philip Rhys is effective in the role, but fairly non-essential character he could have been cut from the story.

A more interesting villain is introduced aboard the Space Liner.  Flemming, the manager of the Space Liner serving genocidal maniacs, whose outwardly camp manner hide his cunning. He might have been more interesting for another story. His customers, the Shoal of Winter Harmony, are also pretty gruesome, with their heads that split open from the top.

The Doctor is on the backfoot for the most of the episode. Yet in spite of this, Peter Capaldi still has enough gravitas to make the Doctor seem like the centre of events. His facial expressions and line readings perfectly get across his exasperation at his wife. He is also hilarious when he has to pretend to be seeing the inside of the Tardis for the first time. The Doctor gains in stature when River discovers his true identity. The look he gives her is excellent.

Although most of the story is a comedy romp, it finally changes tone in the final moments when the Doctor and River arrive on darillium, the last meeting between the Doctor and River before her fateful journey to the Library. As a long term viewer it is worth it finally having this scene. So far the Peter Capaldi era of the show has had a lot of interest in mortality and here we get the Doctor and River trying to enjoy the time they have left. The final shot of an almost kiss was perfect. The nature of time travel means that River could have many more meetings with the Doctor, but this is as perfect an ending as any.

The Husbands of River Song was a pretty enjoyable episode. A funny episode with little touches of grimness along the way. Probably one of my favourite Christmas specials, behind The Snowmen, The Runaway Bride, and The Christmas Invasion but above The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe. We do not know where Doctor Who will go from here. But for now, that final text of 'They Lived Happily ever After' is as good a place as any to put Doctor Who on hold.

9/10

Doctor Who 9x12: Hell Bent

Here, at last. Clara Oswald gets her proper departure from Doctor Who. Unsurprisingly, Face the Raven was not her final moment but more of a set up for this episode. It's not completely surprising, since it would hardly be in character for showrunner Steven Moffat to let a character just die. As with plastic Centurion Rory and ghostly River Song, his characters continue to hang on after they leave the mortal coil.

The last we saw of the Doctor he finally returned to Gallifrey. After two series of searching this felt like it should have been a more momentous occasion but since the Doctor was out for revenge on those that killed Clara and trapped him in the confession, there was little time for any sense of wonder. The Time Lords come across as the usual pompous bores while their soldiers are so casual as to seem banal. Rassilon, who was superbly played by Timothy Dalton in The End of Time is here played as a ranting lunatic. The Doctor brings down Rassilon and the High Council in so little time. In a way it feels like a dull prelude to the more interesting main plot, which is an out of control Doctor tying to save Clara. After bringing her back from the extraction chamber, the two go on one last run, with the Doctor hoping to hold back Clara's death. Peter Capaldi gets to show a raw Doctor, determined to do whatever. From shooting the Time Lord General to stealing a Tardis and flying to the end of the universe.

His troubles lead him into conflict with other immortals including Ohila and Ashildir. It is Ashildir, living at the end of the universe, who has a perspective on the true nature of the Hybrid. Despite all of the teases that it might be a half-human Doctor, or Ashildir, Steven Moffat found a third, more interesting option. The Hybrid is both the Doctor and Clara, egging each other on until they cause chaos. Such a symbiotic relationship is a nice callback to the nature of Osgood discussed in The Zygon Inversion. The only problem is that we never really see this idea put into action. Clara has spent most of this series on the sidelines, and here there's not enough time to show the damage they are causing to the universe. In The Wedding of River Song we got to see the physical fracturing of time as River failed to kill the Doctor. There's nothing like that here, and that's a pity.

The final scenes between the Doctor and Clara in the retro Tardis were good. While the Doctor is prepared to wipe Clara's memory, Clara brings up the less savoury side of this endeavour. Something that there wasn't much time for in Journey's End.

The scenes of the amnesiac Doctor meeting the knowing Clara in Nevada were decent enough. They formed the final goodbye. Ultimately Clara leaves the Doctor to go and travel with  Ashildir inside their old Tardis.

While the episode became a bit of  a muddle in the plotting area it was superb in how it was directed and presented. Rachel Talalay has now replaced Nick Hurran as Doctor Who's best contemporary director. She succeeds in making the Gallifrey scenes feel like a western. Composer Murray Gold is also on form with a brilliant soundtrack of western sounds and synthesizer stings.

Overall it's not a bad episode but not brilliant. It is pretty much the self-indulgent episodes of the show to date, but hopefully this is clearing the decks for something new and exciting. Right now we have the Doctor, in the Tardis, with a new sonic screwdriver that's even more suggestive looking than before. He can go anywhere right now. There's an exiled High Council that might get revenge, or a question of the Doctor's interest in Earth. It remains to be seen which direction Steven Moffat will take.

7/10

Doctor Who: 9x11: Heaven Sent

As a Saturday evening tv program, Doctor Who tends to be made with the mainstream audience in mind. Yet many writers try to push at the boundaries of what one can do in this time slot.
In the original series this resulted in stories like Warriors Gate, Kinda. In the current series this led to Midnight and now  Heaven Sent with simply only the Doctor and the monstrous Veil being any kind of characters. trapped inside a bizarre castle where the architecture changes around.

Although a little confusing on first watch, the story of Heaven Sent is actually pretty simple. The Doctor is reborn inside a castle prison every generation or so to punch through a diamond wall to the exit on the other side. Once again Steven Moffat uses his interest in loops but does so in a more painful way. The Doctor discusses issues of death just as he discovers evidence of the deaths of his other selves. Everything is just a bit more brutal than usual and the better for it.

Of course, the main event of this episode is getting to see Peter Capaldi carrying the whole episode with many, many monologues. He successfully shows the Doctor at his most raw and vulnerable after the supposed death of Clara. He also shows the Doctor's tiredness when he considers losing.  The Doctor's look of surprise when the wall finally breaks is also a nice touch. I hope that executives at the BBC value having such a great leading man working on the series.

Kudos must also go to the director, Rachael Talalay, for realizing this episode. She succeeds in making the castle feel uneasy and uses a lot of moody lighting.  The moment when the Veil attacks the Doctor is shown to be very painful.Even the visible blood on the wounded Doctor helps to make everything feel more real.

Another factor is the great music score by Murray Gold, which blends a classical orchestra with more modern synthesizer sounds to give the whole castle world a sense of not being quite right.

The episode ends on two important revelations. One is that the Doctor was being sent to Gallifrey. The other is the Doctor making his final confesseion that the much talked about Hybrid is 'Me'. This could refer Ashildir o it could be that the half-human revelation of the TV Movie is being brought back. It is possible he may be mistaken and it may be someone else entirely.

With a Gallifrey story on one side and Clara's supposed death on the other, this episode will probably be overlooked in years to come. That is a shame because it is one of the best episodes that Series9 has produced. Even if the casual audience hated it it is important that the Doctor does these things.

10/10

Doctor Who 9x10: Face the Raven

Secret streets, unseen by the public view are a popular recurring trope in fantasy fiction as seen in the London below of Neverwhere or Diagon Alley of Harry Potter. Doctor Who has always dealt with the fantastic in the mundane, what with the Tardis being an ordinary object hiding a fantastic realm, so it is surprising that it has taken them this long to do this episode. When Clara's old companion, Rigsy summons Clara and the Doctor to Earth to help him with a tattoo that counts down,  it leads the Doctor and Clara to track down one of these trap streets.

The story is divided into three sections. These are the search for the trap street, events within the trap street and the final revelation at the end. The pacing seems a bit off in all of these scenes. The scenes of the Doctor, Clara and Riggsy searching for the trap Street only takes around nine or so minutes of screen time, but somehow it feels like they take forever. There's a nice demonstration of Clara's recklessness when she is hanging out of the Tardis but otherwise it feels like these seuqneces could have been trimmed.

Upon arriving at the trap Street it transpires that the place is a refugee camp run by none other than Ashildir/Me. She reveals that Riggy's tattoo was given the tattoo after supposedly killing a woman. The tattoo is linked to a quantum shade which takes the form of a raven. Again, it's an interesting conceit that reminds audiences of the work of Neil Gaiman. The notion of a refugee camp also nicely harkens back to The Zygon Invasion.

Although the murder mystery is presented as being the main plot, the script doesn't seem particularly interested in it. The Doctor isn't particularly bothered to find the killer and the solution is fairly easily resolved. At least the two faced aliens who can see into time were an interesting creation.

The solution to the murder mystery leads to what  feels like the meat of the episode. Ashildir laid a clever trap. But Clara has taken on Rigsy's tattoo and she becomes the victim of the Raven. Her death is a shocking moment but one can't help feeling that it will be reversed at some point in the next two episodes. The scene is played very well by both Peter Capaldi and Jenna Coleman but as a genre savvy audience member, it is difficult to feel it.

Ashildir has taken an interesting development in this episode. Having been a young girl, and a villain, now she is becoming like the Doctor, defending a small patch of the planet Earth. However, unlike the Doctor, she has been forced to compromise by making a pact with the unknown individuals who want the Doctor prisoner. I doubt this is the last we'll see of her.

The street itself is well realised, even though this is obviously the budget saving episode and Murray Gold has a particularly good piece of music.

The episode ends with a lot of answered questions. Who were Me's benefactors? How will the Doctor cope without Clara? Is this truly Clara's final death? It  feels like the first part of a three parter. As a result my opinions may change. As it is this episode currently feels a bit middling. With so much hanging on Clara's death, which may or may not be permanent, it may be two weeks before one can judge the episode.

7/10

Doctor Who 9x09: Sleep No More

Mark Gatiss is generally seen to be one of the more traditional writers on Doctor Who. Where others might try and push the format of the show, Gatiss can usually be counted on to deliver straightforward, entertainment that doesn't particularly challenge the viewers. With Sleep No More Gatiss has attempted to produce a story that is both experimental and traditional at the same time. Sadly it doesn't quite work. 

The story sees  a military crew arriving on an abandoned 'Le Verrier' space station and finding monsters created by the mad Professor Rassmausen. In that sense it is a very traditional episode, with a bunch of indeterminable space marines being chased down corridors by monsters. The Space Marines all have one stock character traits. The Captain says 'pet' a lot, Chopra is the political one. Deep Ando is the joker, albeit one who never really makes any jokes and 474 is the slave clone. In the role of 474. The Sandman monsters are generally quite straightforwad. 

The episode is experimental in the sense that it is a 'found footage' episode. The problem with found footage is that there are points where the story is difficult to follow. It also interferes with the Sandman, which are a very fairytale creature. 

The actors are somewhat lost among this found footage experiment. Peter Capaldi is great as ever but Jenna Coleman is stuck playing Clara as a generic companion who gets nothing to do besides falling into a box. In the role of 474, Bethany Black  joins the long cast of wasted guest stars in the show. The mad professor is Rassmussen, the big guest star of the episode, played by Reece Shearsmith. 

The only other thing that I can say is that I liked the Japanese aesthetic, although that doesn't hide the fact that this is a basic base. I think that sums up the episode in a nutshell. An experimental exterior hiding a traditional and extremely hollow interior. Experimental episodes should not be frowned away from, but they need to be better than this. 

5/10

James Bond: GoldenEye (1995)

This day marks twenty years since the US premier of GoldenEye, the first relaunch of the James Bond franchise. After growing up on the James Bond Jr cartoons and seeing the last act of From Russia with Love, watching GoldenEye on video in 1996 was the first time I saw a Bond movie all the way through. Since then I have seen better Bond films and worse Bond films, but this one has always remained a personal favourite. The fact that it spawned one of the best first person shooters ever, 007: GoldenEye for the N64, proves it has a legacy. 

GoldenEye accomplishes the tough task of bringing back Bond for the 90s. On the one hand the film needed to appeal to the old fans but you also want to make seem modern for the younger viewers. GoldenEye manages this with throwbacks to the classic series such as the Aston martin DB5, a Casino Setting, and gorgeous femme fatales. On the other hand, certain elements are brand new, such as the fall of the Soviet Union and the idea of an old friend turning traitor.

The film reflects the changing political climate in its narrative. Bond and Agent 006, Alec Trevelyan, have been sent to Soviet Russia to destroy a Chemical Weapon facility. The mission goes awry and 006 is shot by Colonel Ourumov. After the nifty pre credits sequence, the film shifts to the modern day. Xenia Onatopp and Ourumov steal the GoldenEye satellite for the organisation, Janus. This is a new world and Bond’s sexism is called out by his superiors. Ourumov is now a General, but seems out of place in with the other politicians. The world of espionage has been replaced by the world of computers. What’s more Alec Trevelyan, the dead agent, is alive and behind the while scheme. The black and white world of the Cold War is brought into account.

Pierce Brosnan was, and still is, perfect casting for James Bond. A lot of people see him as a tame choice now when compared to Craig but he is pretty good here. He manages to be callous when facing Trevelyan down on the Ferrier. GoldenEye was originally a Dalton film, but Pierce makes it his own. He is very much the Connery/Moore model of Bonds, an old fashioned man trapped in a world that has changed.

The Bond girl, Russian computer programmed named Natalya Simonova, is well played by Isabella Scorupco. This attractive computer programmer is perhaps less flashy than Wai Lin or Eve Moneypenny, but she still holds her own. She is the one who disarms the GoldenEye weapon and also rescues Bond at the end when she forces Trevelyan’s helicopter to go to Bond’s aid.

The new MI6 team are pretty impressive. Judi Dench was a piece of brilliant casting as M. There were doubts at the time that a woman could play M but they are instantly dispelled by this performance. Samantha Bond is a good choice for a 90s Moneypenny and she stands out more Caroline Bliss managed in the Dalton films. Michael Kitchen is acceptable as Tanner though the character doesn’t really do very much.

Good villains can bring up even the weaker Bond films and fortunately, GoldenEye has four strong villains. The main villain, Alec Trevelyan, is well played by Sean Bean and it’s nice to see Bond facing someone hwo knows him personally. The only fault is that the reference to the Lienz Cossacks makes it feels the character is supposed to have been older. Perhaps a mentor to Bond would have been better than an equal, but you do not care.

The henchmen are a pretty interesting bunch as well. Xenia Onatopp is a memorable, atrractive villain, played well by Famke Janssen . Her ability to kill people by crushing them with their thighs is ridiculous but memorable. Ourumov is understated and well played by Gottfried John. Alan Cumming is good as computer geek Boris Grischenko. He captures the irritating geekiness and certainly stands out more than the bland Henry Gupta from the next film, Tomorrow Never Dies.

With Martin Campbell as director we have Joe Don Baker here and he is much better suited to the role of Jack Wade than the role of Brad Whittaker he played in The Living Daylights. Robbie Coltrane, fresh from Cracker, plays the mob boss Zukovsky pretty well. Overall, the casting is such that I can pretty much remember all of the characters in this film. No-one here is forgettable, unlike some of the bland ciphers that featured in Quantum of Solace.

Martin Campbell does a good job directing this film. This tale is not as gritty as his work on Edge of Darkness, but the photography of this film makes it feels glamorous and distinct. The action sequences are decent, even managing to make a slow moving tank look exciting in a chase.

Eric Serra’s music has been a source of consternation for Bond fans. It feels as though the producers wanted music to appeal to viewers of more contemporary action films. Some fans find that his music is not entirely suitable for Bond, but to be fair, the producers did hire him for his music on Leon. The soundtrack is a mixed bag. The ‘GoldenEye overture piece’ is a good blood pumping action track but ‘Experience of Love’ is terrible. It started out as an unused track from Leon and the lyrics fit that film much better. GoldenEye ends in triumph with Bond settling the score with his old friend turned enemy and putting the past behind him, literally, as he goes off to enjoy some time with Natalya but the ‘Experience of Love’ fails to reflect that. It’s a piece that suits a more downbeat ending. I enjoy Eric Serra’s score for the most part but can see why some people don’t. I only wish that the Bond theme used in the film’s trailer could have been used in the film itself.

Tina Turner’s song is not one of the best Bond themes, but Daniel Kleinman does a great job with the pre-titles. The sequence of naked women smashing Soviet statues reflects the theme of the film perfectly.

Minor niggles include the pointless inclusion of the BMW car and the use of back projection in the plane diving sequence, but these are minor complaints. GoldenEye is definitely one of the better Brosnan films, if not the best. Ironically, the theme of Russia’s weakened political influence is the aspect that has dated most when Vladimir Putin is determined to change things. While later Brosnan films were gifted with the more polished David Arnold music, this film gets the better director.

9/10

Doctor Who 9x08: The Zygon Inversion

Peter Harness' previous story, Kill the Moon featured an action packed opening that became a character piece about choices and their consequences. The Zygon Inversion provides a similar situation. Everyone gathers in the Black Archive to make a choice that can begin or end the war. 

The resolution to last week's cliffhangers are neat, if fairly unimpressive. The Doctor and Osgood escape the exploding plane but we get no hint as to what happened to the other survivors. Kate Stewart's 'five rounds rapid' moment is a nice callback to her father, but it feels like a betrayal of her background of putting science over everything else. I really don't know what the point of the character is. 

The Zygons plan to start a war is advanced this week as Bonnie seeks out the new character, Etoine, 

a Zygon who is happy with staying in hiding. Bonnie reverts Etoine to his normal form. It's a good example of the normal people who become victims of extremist movements. It is hard not to feel sorry for him and his suicide is a sad moment in the episode.  

As Bonnie, the Zygon leader, Jenna gets a lot to do this week. She proves to be a talented actor in making Bonnie feel different to Clara. In the scenes where the two interface minds you don't have to work hard to tell which is which, even with the hair differences. In many ways Jenna is more interesting as Bonnie than as the average companion Clara.

Of course,  the real meat of the story is in the Black Archive. The Osgood box is revealled to be two boxes each one with two buttons that may end or start the war. All of the devices that were mentioned last week such as the Zygon gas are brought back as a means. Bonnie and Kate are brought together to make the decision. It's a nice contrast to the two Kates in Day of the Doctor. Any remaining doubters that Peter Capaldi is one of the best Doctors is proved wrong here. At the beginning of the episode he is amusing as the pun making hero, then we get to his brilliant speech in the Black Archive. He plays it earnestly and imploringly. The Doctor's decision to forgive Bonnie is necessary. If he kills her then she becomes a martyr to the cause. The Doctor's forgiveness allows Bonnie to disarm the movement.

The end result is nicely ambiguous. The Doctor reveals that it has happened fifteen times before. Like any peace it is fragile but nonetheless important to make it work.

Fittingly the episode ends with Bonnie taking on the role of the absent Osgood. Whether or not they are human and Zygon or both Zygon is an interesting mystery but the answer doesn't really matter. They are both Osgood. People must put aside their prejudices. 

Ingrid Oliver continues to play Osgood well. The character may not be companion material, as some have suggested, but she is good in the role. I can't see if there's any point bringing her back beyond this, but she is welcome to do so. 

The episode has a good visual look. The dark red Zygon chamber is good and the drab greyness of the council flats give the piece a feeling of being grounded in reality. This makes it better than most Series 9 episodes which were fairly fanciful. 

After the fairly average Kill the Moon, Peter Harness has proven that he deserves to come back for more episodes. Doctor Who has covered many different genes across its 52 year history, but the general public always seem to favour the alien invasions. The danger of relying on this genre is that it can be xenophobic at times. A lot of Patrick Troughton stories were. Fortunately, the Zygon Invasion is a good reminder of what the Doctor and the show itself, should stand for.  

9/10

Orphan Black 3x10: History Yet to Be Written

Season finales of television shows always have a tendency to throw everything in to up the stakes. History Yet to Be Written is no different.  Now that Sarah and Siobhan have Kendall Malone,  everyone is coming out of the woodwork to get them. This included Castor, Dyad and even the Neolutionists.

Since their debut in Series 1, the Neolutionists have faded into the background while other powers have emerged. Dr Nealon proves to be a particularly vicious member as he attacks Delphine. The reveal of the Neolutionists also brings in some unlikely allies when Ferdinand kills off a Neolutionist spy. It's a somewhat amusing if gory scene.

While Coady searches for Malone, Rudy goes after Alison and has an encounter with Helena. This is a fight worth waiting for. Helena is unsurprisingly the victor, but it is a punishment to Rudy that was well worth coming.

Kendall Malone's capture also allows for some poignant moments, when she and her daughter, Siobhan get to find out more about each other, and understand more details of John Sadler's death.

The episode ends with everyone getting together to dine at Bubbles. It's not quite as memorable as the clone dance of Series 2, but it is fun to see all of the cast, including Donnie and Art, together.

Just as Series 2 ended with a big revelation that male clones existed, Series 3 ends with the revelation that Susan Duncan has survived. Professor Duncan said that she had been killed by neolutionists but it appears that she may have defected to work with them.

Series 3 has the happiest endings. Sarah being reunited with Kira is touching while Helena appears to be getting a better life. However it is tinged with sadness as Delphine tries to set things right before her death. We also know of the looming danger that Susan Duncan may pose.  Series Three has generally been quite good and I look forward to seeing what direction it goes in next time, assuming that BBC3 actually put the next series on soon.

Orphan Black 3x09: Insolvent Phantom of Tomorrow

It's always fun to watch how London is portrayed in American tv shows. When Siobhan, Sarah and Felix return to London the usual beer egg and chips and south londoners are all present and correct. After the 'interesting' Irish accent of last year it's not too bad. The return home affords an opportunity to discover the background of Siobhan. Not only do we see her sing but it transpires that her mother, Kendall Malone, is the original Castor and Leda.

Events are also heating up back at Dyad with the revelation that Shay might be a spy. This leads to the brilliant moment when Delphine attempts to kill Shay and then changes her mind when Cosima calls after discovering that Gracie was the traitor. It's good that the writers chose not to go down the predictable route with Shay. Quite how badly this will impact on their relationship remains to be seen. 

The relatively tame sub plot of the Hendrix Family starts to escalate as Pouchy attempts to procure the drugs and ends up taking Helena's frozen eggs. This leads to the hilarious team up of Donnie and Helena. The scene of Helena pretending to be Alison is funny. Ultimately Helena reverts back to her killing ways. 

It's good to see that everyone's sub plot is escalating. Let's hope that everything is tied up nice and neatly in the final episode. 

9/10

Orphan Black 3x08: Ruthless in Purpose and Insidious in Method

It's been a while since viewers have been introduced to a new Leda clone . It's always a fun occasion when Tatiana Maslany gets to play a different character. The new clone in question is Krystal Goderitch, who was briefly introduced in episode one but not given very much detail. In this episode she inadvertently becomes part of a plot by Sarah and Felix to get Rachel out of the hospital in return for translating some of Ethan Duncan's book.

The scenes of Felix talking to Krystal are the best moments of the episode. When we first see Krystal she seems to be a shallow starts out seeming shallow but we see she is cleverer than she looks when she ascertains Felix' painting skills. Felix going to an American accent is funny. Crystal is left out of the clone club. It manages to be quite an affecting moments. Jordan Gavaris is also quite good in portraying Felix' scenes of tricking Crystal well. It's also nice to hear what is probably Jordan's real accent. Sarah is surpisingly more pragmatic.

Another great feature of the episode is that Alison's subplot is finally starting to integrate with the all the other subplots. She not only has to deal with control  of her new store, 'Bubbles', but also Helena, who has been taken in.. It's wonderful when the show mixes characters from different backgrounds. Psychotic Helena with the soccer mum family is brilliant. Helena teaching Alison's daughter how to fight was a hoot. A further complication for Alison is the rivalry between  Donnie and Jason. It boils to the point where Jason beats up Donnie. What the long term consequences will be for their drug business remain to be seen.

Events are also starting to escalate back at the Dyad Institute. Cosima's relationship with Dyad and Delphine is strained not only by  Shay visiting the Institute but also through Cosima's plan to get Rachel out using Scott's gaming group. This plan goes awry when Rachel goes missing.

There are hints of dark things to come when we see that Dr Cody and Castor clone Rudy have survived the explosion at the end of Certain Agony of the Battlefield. They are being advised by  government agent who was deciving Paul and there are suggestions that there is a force which is controlling both Castor and Leda. I'm not a great fan of the wheels behind wheels nature of conspiracy television and I prefer the character based moments of Orphan Black so I am hoping that any future reveal of these hidden force will make matters clearer rather than obscuring them further.

Overall this is a pretty fun and exciting episode. The series is now getting better and better.

9/10

Doctor Who 9x07: The Zygon Invasion

It's been a while since a  Doctor Who story touched on political themes. It happened more frequently in the Barry Letts, Andrew Cartmel and Russell T Davies years but the last time I can remember it happening in the Steven Moffat era was  The Beast Below with reference to the way people vote. Since then, Moffat's era has mostly focused on emotional themes, but with the return of the Zygons, the opportunity of a story of shapeshifters living among us becomes a metaphor for terrorism and radicalization with a Zygon splinter group attempting to create war and fostering paranoia. The appearance of drones and references to bombing made this feel a much more unsettling story. Some prefer the fairytale style of the Matt Smith years but I prefer this harder edge feel.

The Zygons themselves are well realised. While I prefer the more humanoid faces of the originals, the basic costume is the same, if not better than the 1975 versions. The costume is similar to the old one but the concept has been updated to recent times. The idea that they can impersonate people without needing to keep the original alive makes them much more terrifying since they now have no reason to be merciful to their victims. The idea that they can impersonate loved ones proves effectively creepy in the scene with the soldier threatening to shoot his own mother.

Another welcome return is that of Osgood. It's nice that we don't know yet whether she is a Zygon or a human. The notion that this one has grieved for the other one allows Osgood's death to stay while allowing the character to continue on in this story. Ingrid Oliver continues to be likable in the role.

Peter Capaldi continues to prove that he is one of the best actors to inhabit the role of the Doctor. The guitar playing is certainly becoming a thing. The Doctor spends the episode on the sidelines while other characters make decisions. There's still a chance that this will change next week.

Although Clara appeared briefly at the beginning, Jenna Coleman spent the episode playing Clara's Zygon duplicate, known as Bonnie. Jenna did admirably in the role but a downside this meant that the real Clara once again was sidelined as she was kidnapped at the very beginning of the story. It is odd that Clara is being kept apart from the Doctor so much this series and once again I am wondering why the production team kept her on.

The Unit team were okay. Kate Stewart still seems underplayed to the point of dullness. I suppose you could be generous and say that she is quietly tough. Jac was likeable enough to make this viewer feel sad that she was ambushed and killed at the end of the episode.

This episode accomplished the hard task of making a UNIT story exciting. A lot of Series 9 has been playing it safe so it is good to see an episode that is not. This series seems to have a running trend of second episodes not being as good as the first so I hope this one proves that wrong.

9/10

Orphan Black 3x07: Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate

After two weeks of military base action it's nice to have a change of pace with an Alison centric episode. What should be a simple day of making her speech for School trustee becomes a farce where she has to free Donnie, give Cosima a urine sample and deal with her mother who refuses to hand over control of the 'Bubbles' store. In the process, Felix helps out and Cosima gets to be Alison.

Felix is often at his best when he is working with Sarah. This time has has to be in an organizational role. Jordan Gavaris plays the comedy scenes far better than the darker scenes that he was playing last week.

A lot of the funniest scenes revolve around Donnie Hendrix. The actor who plays Donnie is really good at comedy scenes, an unsung hero of the series. He spends most of the episode in the hands of Pouchie and his dry witty responses keep the episode alive. The contrast between white middle class Donnie and the Spanish, no nonsense drug dealers is as amusing as one would expect.

With the focus on Alison, Sarah and Helena are stuck in a Mexican bar, giving the characters a break from any plot heavy duties. Mrs. S arrives and has a violent reconciliation with Helena. It's nice that they wrapped this up early as an ongoing feud between Helena and Mrs. S would have quickly become tedious to watch.

The plot is also more Dyad focused this week. Delphine is back and determined to force Cosima to get a urine sample. At the same time, we get some more comedy scenes of Scott teaching Rachel how to play a farming board game. Rachel knows the codes and  she will only tell Sarah.

Ultimately everything works out for Alison, bit with the added complication that Jason Kellerman kissed Cosima when she was posed as Alison. We also have the promise of a Rachel and Sarah encounter to come.

Orphan Black is often  better when its focusing more on character interaction and less on a the twisting, turning conspiracy. This is one of the more character based episodes and therefore stronger.

Orphan Black: Certain Agony of the Battlefield

Back in Series One, Beth Childs was quite an important character. Her suicide was what led Sarah Manning into the whole clone conspiracy in the first place, and Beth's relationships with Art and Paul were the focus of many of those early episodes. As the series has progressed, Beth has gradually faded into the background as other clones have appeared and taken the limelight. This episode sees her return as one of Sarah's dreams. It's nice to see her back, and it also ties in with Sarah's relationship with Paul. 

Paul's loyalty to the Castor project takes a turn here when he finds that Dr Cody is transferring Castor blood into Sarah. As a result, he becomes the driving force in this episode, taking over the military base, arresting Dr Cody and discovering the conspiracy to use the Castor pathogen to create a weapon. Things take a turn for him when Rudy returns to the base and Paul is wounded. His final action is to sacrifices himself. It's nice to see evidence that Paul liked Sarah and that his heart was at least in part in the right place. The character may not have been the most likable but his death is still somewhat touching. 

Assisting Paul is the castor clone, Mark. It was amusing how the writers covered up the possible inconsistency with the second series. Just as Paul feels for Sarah, Mark's discovery about the sexually transmitted defect makes him feel bad about Gracie. He is easily the most likable of the clones and will hopefully not be killed off too soon.

Int he midst of all this action Sarah starts to feel dragged down by the clone conspiracy. This is really Paul's episode and Sarah is rescued by him and has little agency. At the end she is rescued by a guilty Helena. But this is allowed for once since she is usually so active.

Helena only appears in a couple of scenes in this episode. Pupok, the embodiment of her self preservation, tells her to move on. Her eating Pupok is symbolic of the fact that she is getting rid of her selfish side.

Back in America, Felix goes to Rachel to find out more about Castor. The scene of Felix trying to interrogate Rachel is not a particularly convincing since Jordan Gavaris can’t quite make Felix seem menacing. Scott, manages to be more observant and discover that the symbols are similar tot he ones on the book. Rachel evidently knows more about the Doctor Moreau situation.

Things get a bit more complex for Cosima when Delphine returns. Shae seems nice but seems to know Sarah's name. She claims this is sleepwalking but knowing how Orphan Black works it's probably a sign that she's a spy. It still seems all too obvious and I'm hoping there's a twist that Shae is *not* a spy.

Alison and Donnie make a reappearance this week, although this plot is continuing to move at a very slow pace. Alison wants to expand operations so she hatches a scheme with Donnie and Jason to get hold of her mother's store. We get more hints that Alison and Jason are getting closer. It's still the weak link in this series though. Alison and Donnie do get one of the best scenes in the episode when they do their money dance.

With Paul dead and the military base blown to pieces, Sarah and Helena's plot may be put on hold for a while. With Delphine back the story may be focusing on the Leda side of things again. That will be good. 

8/10

Orphan Black: Scarred by Many Past Frustrations

Unsurprisingly, Mark did not kill Sarah at the end of the previous episode. Instead her taken her back with him to the army base while the dead baby body is given to Dr Virginia Cody who plans to use it to understand the Castor condition.

It’s good to see Sarah and Helena reunited at long last. The scenes of these two clones together, talking between the cells are the best moments of the episode, as we see them initially antagonistic but slowly learning to trust each other. Sarah is usually shown to be more thoughtful than Helena, but here int he jail, Helena's survival instincts are better while Sarah seems lost. Helena escapes without Sarah but feels guilty about it. Whether this guilt is enough to make her turn back is not clear yet.

With Sarah being held captive, Felix and Mrs.S are unable to support her. Nevertheless they prove useful in another way when Art brings Gracie, Heinrich’s daughter, to their house for help. It’s interesting seeing Gracie trying to acclimatize to life outside of her family. We also find out that more about Mrs S backstory. Gracie partying with Felix and Siobhan is another fun moment. Unfortunately she is suffering as it seems that intimate contact spreads the defect from the clones to people.

Cosima's subplot moves on a little further as goes on a date with Shay, who seems to be a likeable character, if a little dull and uninteresting. New partners often turn out to be monitors and spies, so if
if Shay turns out to be a spy it will be one of the most obvious plot twists ever. I'm hoping that either the writers go in a different direction or they  make this betrayal a little different, otherwise it's just the show treading the same old ground.

Although all the plots are fairly strong, a weakness in Series 3 is highlighted through Alison's absence from this episode. What's bad is that this absence is barely noticeable is a sign of how little her election/drug dealing subplot has contributed to the overall story arc. This still needs to change. 

Overall this is a pretty satisfying episode. With Helena finally out of prison and Cosima given a new direction in the series, things can start to move forward.

9/10

Tennant and Tate in Big Finish

Even though this news was leaked ages long before the War Doctor news came out, it still feels good to have it officially confirmed.  The Tenth Doctor was never better than when he was alongside Donna Noble and it's another reason to buy the audios if you don't already do so.

When The Runaway Bride first aired I didn't particularly like Donna.  The character seemed loud and annoying. Like a character from Catherine Tate's comedy sketches rather than a proper character. Her only decent moment was when she slapped the Doctor. When it was later announced that she would be succeeding Martha Jones I wasn't very happy. Fortunately, when Series 4 came along, they'd toned the character down a little. She was a little older and wiser than the previous two companions and could bring the Doctor down to earth. Catherine Tate worked really well alongside David Tennant and by the end of the series I was sad to see her go. The Tenth Doctor and Donna had become one of my favourite Doctor/Companion teams of the show's history. In my personal canon, Donna's memory lock is broken and she finds a way to go off into the stars to have further, solo, adventures.

It's not quite as surprising that David Tennant is doing Big Finish plays. He's appeared in them long before he became the Doctor, so it felt like it was only a matter of time before he came to do more.

With the War Doctor and the Tenth Doctor it can only be a matter of time before Eleventh Doctor Matt Smith takes part in audio adventures. With news of Series 10 still sketchy this is further evidence that Big Finish will be leading Doctor Who in 2016.

Doctor Who 9x06: The Woman Who Lived

Immortality is a recurring theme in Doctor Who as well its spin off show, Torchwood. Writer Catherine Treganna has already brought her own notion to Torchwood. Now she gets to play a similar situation when the Doctor's search for an alien artifact leads to a run in into the immortal Ashildir.

Since we last met her, Ashildir has become Lady Me, a lady who also has a double life as the highwayman known as the 'Knightmare' and trying to track down an artefact known as the 'Eyes of Hades'. Treganna does a good job showing the transition of Ashildir from a hopeful, caring young storyteller into a hardened, cynical killer. The whole idea that Lady Me stopped having children from the pain of losing them is a good one. Maisie Williams puts in a great performance once again. Lady Me has much less in commin with Arya Stark than Ashildir, and we get to see Maisie playing a much colder character.

The coldness of Lady Me gives Peter Capaldi a different angle from which to play the Doctor. This time the Doctor is the voice of compassion, speaking for the little people. The scenes of the Doctor and Me trying to steal the Eyes of Hades is funny and overall the episode is at its strongest when it focuses around on the interplay between these two characters.

Unfortunately, the sub plot of the episode is not as strong. Lady Me is in cahoots with the leonine alien, Leandro. It is a well designed creature, harking  back to Beauty and the Beast. Unfortunately the interesting appeance hides what is basically a generic monster of the week. He and Lady Me scheme to use the death of highwayman, Sam Swift to activate the Eyes of Hades and
a portal to another dimension. Leandro claims he is simply a stranded survivor trying to get home, but it soon becomes apparent that this is a ruse to allow his invasion fleet in. The fact that Lady Me  is surprised by this revelation unfortunately makes her look a little stupid. She had previously been shown to be a cynical character, and even told the Doctor that  she'd kill Leandro if he betrayed her so she shouldn't be quite so surprised that he didn't keep his word. The invasion is halted as abruptly as it is introduced, when Lady Me uses the other Mire medical device to prevent Sam's death and possibly make him immortal.

Fortunately the episode gets back on track in its final scenes. The Doctor and Me's final conversation in the tavern about the mayfly lives of humans is great. Sam Swift, who is initially introduced as a simply bawdry comedy highwayman, gets to be the topic of this conversation about how important it is to live life to the full. Lady Me settles on the idea of becoming the woman who helps the people the Doctor leaves behind. It's an interesting role.

Clara is absent for most of this episode, only appearance in the final scene. Despite this, The Woman Who Lived  is all about the absence of Clara. All of this talk of mayflies is all to do with how the Doctor perceives Clara. This is yet another episode with hints of Clara's mortality. Given his track record, I don't Steven Moffat is going to kill the character, at least not in a straightforward manner. But the appearance of Ashildir at the end is good. Sarah Dollard has hinted at the character's return. This will undoubtedly take place in some prerecorded scene from this story's recording block, but I definitely look forward to it.

This is definitely the best two parter of Series 9 so far. Only the Leandro side of the plot lets it down.

Episode Score: 8/10

Doctor Who 9x05: The Girl Who Died

Jamie Mathieson's episodes of Series Eight came at the top of the Doctor Who Magazine poll for 2014 so the news that he would be working with Steven Moffat on The Girl Who Died suggested that the audience were in for something brilliant. The resulting episode did not disappoint.

Any guesses about which author wrote which part are usually clouded by personal bias but I personally assume that the basic pitch of the story was Mathieson's. It's a straight forward, Seven Samurai inspired tale of  the Doctor trying to help a group of Vikings defend their village from alien warriors known as the Mire after a girl, Ashildir, declares war on them. Like Mathieson's previous episodes, we have a straightforward story that nonetheless feels seems more sophisticated when one peers under the surface.

The Doctor was faced with the dilemma on whether to help the villagers against the Mire. Peter Capaldi is brilliant in these scenes. The Doctor speaking baby felt twee in the Matt Smith years but here it came across quite well here as a form of telepathy rather than literally speaking to a baby. The character's ultimate decision to defeat the enemy using storytelling is a great example of what the Doctor does at his best. Somehow Jamie Mathieson seem's to write for Capaldi's Doctor better than anyone else.

The other big highlight of this episode is, to the surprise of no-one,  the presence of Maisie Williams in the role of Ashildir. Comparisons between this character Maisie's Game of Thrones character, Arya Stark, are somewhat inevitable. They are both outsiders who are nonetheless loyal to their family and have a zeal for combat . In Arya's stark it was her fighting spirit that made her different. In Ashildir's case it is her storytelling that makes her an outsider and also provides the key to defeating the Mire.
As the girl who died of the title becomes immortal and it will be interesting to see how this changes the character. The final scene where we see Ashildir harden through Maisie's facial expressions alone are a sign of how this actor is up and coming.

While the Doctor and Ashildir were clearly the most important characters, Clara was not too badly sidelined here.  She plays a crucial role in saving Ashildir from the Mire Ship and confronting the Mire's leader, Odin. The scene of Clara talking Odin into revealing his plan is another example of how much she is becoming like the Doctor and Jenna is perfect here. The character's knowledge of the Doctor is crucial in  prompting him to defeat the Mire. Less successful is the moment when she quips about fancying Ashidir. Clara's bisexuality came out of the blue in The Magician's Apprentice and although it's nice to see it as more than one line, it still feels like a last minute change to the character. Clara's development in the show has always felt a bit patchwork and this is just one example. With Clara's departure imminent it might have been better if Steven Moffat waited to make the next companion bisexual instead. Then it wouldn't have felt so tacked on.

The rest of the characters are decent, if undeveloped. The Viking villagers are fairly funny, but it's hard to remember anything beyond their funny names. The alien Mire look impressive, and the concept that they drain testosterone from their enemies is an interesting one, but they are faily standard invaders. David Schofield gives a decent enough performance as Odin, but perhaps the role required a more bombastic, over the top performance to work.

This episode certainly succeeded in presentation. The direction was decent and the music was decent, especially the Ashildir theme. Murray Gold's music has been fairly subdued this series and it felt like he'd finally woken up

While previous episodes of Series Nine have been fun they've felt a bit like they were going through the motions. The Girl Who Died is fairly familiar in some regards but also very well done. It's probably the first genuine success of this series.

9/10

Orphan Black: Formalized, Complex and Costly

Events never really slow down for poor Sarah Manning. No sooner are she and Felix stuck trying to dispose of the body of Seth than Art arrives with news about the location of Mark. Once again, Art is put upon to bend the law and pretend he didn't see the body.

Art has often been an odd character. He has constantly helped Sarah even when she keeps away from information he needs to know. We finally get an admittedly not surprising answer for this in that he actually loved Beth and she phoned him the night she died. It's a nice little bit of development although one might argue that this information could have been revealed earlier. It does at least mean that Sarah and Art are closer now.

Mark himself gets developed much more than previous episode . It seems that he was a Castor mole, sent to spy on Heinrich, in much the same way as Paul was sent to spy on Dyad. He tries searching for Heinrich's old samples but has no luck. Ultimately, Sarah's search has alerted the Prolethians and Heinrich's wife shoots and kills Mark. Gracie was apparently brought back into the fold. It is interesting seeing Gracie understand what she has let herself in for.

While Sarah and Art go after Mark, it is up to Cosima and Scott to examine the body of Seth for more DNA information. Cosima's removal of Seth's brain and Scott's reaction are pretty funny and a good example of the vein of dark humour that runs through the series. Their examinations also reveal that the Castor and Leda clones are actually siblings. This does of course make the scene where Rudy kissed Crystal pretty gross.

Castor Clone Rudy is back at the desert HQ where Helena is being held. He is seemingly back under Paul's command. It is also evident that the Castor clones see Dr Cody as some kind of mother. Paul forces him to search for Mark.

Alison is now selling drugs disguised in soap bars and gaining voters. So far her subplot seems to be disconnected from the main threads. It is bound to come together sooner or later. Hopefully it will be sooner.

Rachel is another Leda clone with issues. Doctor Nealon appears to be assisting her recovery. She is currently out of Dyad, but when she gets better there may be trouble ahead.

8/10

Doctor Who 9x04: Before the Flood

The news that Series 9 would be mostly made up of two part stories was met positively by many Doctor Who fans who remember and love the shock of a good cliffhanger. However, the risk with two part stories is that the second part will fail to live up to the promise of the first part. This is exactly what happens in  Before the Flood.

Where the story left off, it had just split off into two different threads. The Doctor, Bennett and O'Donnell traveled back in time to a fake Soviet village to find out what is causing ghosts in the future. Back in the future, Clara, Cass and Lunn are trapped in the Drum with the ghost, including the new ghost Doctor. Ultimately neither of these threads proved particularly interesting.

The journey into the past led to the Doctor, Bennett and O['Donnell encountering the still living Tivolian, known as Prentis. This reviewer was excited to see Paul Kaye making an appearance in Doctor Who but like many a guest star he is ultimately wasted in a minor role. Prentis is just a comic relief character with none of the darker side that Gibbis had in the God Complex. There's no expansion of the Tivolian race here. Prentis is in this story simply to remind the Doctor that the ship is a space hearse before he is killed by the story's villain: the Fisher King.

The Fisher King, it transpires was creating the ghost signal in order to launch an invasion while it survives inside the stasis pod. It's a pretty anticlimactic reveal. The name suggests Arthurian legend but the creature itself is bog standard. It showed promise early on, when it ruthlessly kileld Prentis and O'Donnell and the costume looked great when it was hidden in shadow in interior locations. Unfortunately the monster has to go outside, and we get an embarrassing scene of the monster waddling out of the building since the actor clearly finds it difficult to walk in the suit. It's like those Ice Warrior in the original series all over again. The Fisher King also turns out to be one of the most easily defeated of the Doctor's foes. The Doctor tricks it into checking the signal in the spaceship before nipping into the stasis pod and exploding the dam to flood the village. It all felt too easy.

The story wasn't particularly compelling back in the Drum either. Clara, Cass and Lunn proved helpful in translating the ghost Doctor's words but then they just had to hide in the Faraday cage with the phone outside to contact the Doctor. When the phone is nicked by the ghosts the trio risk their lives to get the phone back. This turns out to be a waste of time since  they ultimately don't need it again after all. When Rose helped a base crew in The Satan Pit she contributed to the destruction of the mind of the devil creature while the Doctor dealt with the body. Here, Clara's team felt almost peripheral to the plot.

The Doctor ultimately returns to the drum in the stasis capsule, as pretty every sci-fi savvy viewer already guessed. It also transpires that the Doctor's ghost is simply another hologram which is used to trap the remaining ghosts in the Faraday Cage.

The episode is, as the Doctor reveals at the beginning of the episode, a bootstrap paradox. Steven Moffat's done this kind of thing before as a one second joke, like the Doctor stealing Amelia's drink from the past to to give to the thirsty future version in The Big Bang. Here, in the pre-titles sequence, the Doctor explains it like the viewers are totally new to the concept. The paradox even work anyway. After O'Donnell is killed her ghost appears at the base. But the nature of a paradox loop means the ghost should have been there from the beginning, just as Prentis' ghost was.

The supporting characters were not given much in the way of further development. O'Donnell was the standout character of last week's episode so it is irritating that she is killed fairly early on. We find out that she and Bennett were secretly in love. The only hint of that in Under the Lake was when O'Donnell thumped Bennett the shoulder. Here it feels pointless. Bennett gets to stand up to the Doctor.

Bennett's other role is to force Lunn to admit to Cass that he loves her. Yet again, we have a relationship which feels tacked on. Cass was certainly shown to care about Lunn, but this could just be a deaf person caring for her interpretor, or close friends. It feels like the easy route to go down. Individually Cass gets a nice moment when she evades the ghost Moran's axe attack but Lunn remains with no distinct personality.

Jenna Coleman was good as Clara but her one task was to get the phone to call the Doctor, something they didn't even have to do in the end. Her only other role was to comfort Bennett for losing a loved one. It's difficult to see how advice could be useful to Bennett since he can't gallivant around the stars as she does. However, it does indicate that Clara is hollow inside. Without Danny she has lost her anchor to Earth and the consequences of this will hopefully be explored later in this series.

Peter Capaldi's portrayal of the Doctor was one of the few highlights of this tale. He continues to balance the silliness of playing a guitar with the grim determination when he realises that he must save Clara.

The set design is pretty decent. The Soviet village was well realised, even though the soviet link was ultimately pointless to anything. The episode had a cold and stark feel which set it apart. The guitar version of the Doctor Who theme was good and I hope it becomes a regular.

I wanted to like this episode, but watching Before the Flood is ultimately a hollow experience. Paper thin characters in an underdeveloped plot. It's not a patch on The God Complex. I would go as far as to say that this one of the few genuine clunkers in the Peter Capaldi era of the show.

5/10

Orphan Black 3x02: Transistory Sacrifices of Crisis

Now this was much better! The previous episode reintroduced the status quo in a fairly straightforward manner only hinted at events to come. In this episode, those plot threads began to move forward and Series 3 starts to get interesting. 

The Castor Clones came into focus in this episode, in particular the efforts of Seth, the scarred clone and Rudy, the one with the moustache. It becomes clear that while they are still officially take orders from Paul Dierden, they have a personal mission. Seth appears to be suffering from a degenerative condition and Rudy hopes to cure this using Dr Ethan Duncan's original genome for the Castor clones, which, along with the Leda genome, has apparently been lost. Their hunt for this brings them into contact with Sarah and Kira. Although Rudy threatens Kira for the genome, he clearly has a protective side for his brothers, much as Sarah does for her sisters. Likewise, Seth's condition puts him in a similar situation to Cosima. It also adds a layer of vulnerability to these characters which almost enough to make you sympathize with these two, even if their treatment of women makes this difficult. Ultimately, Rudy has to put Seth down. 

Sarah's plans to rescue Helena were put on hold as she is forced to look after Kira, making amends with Siobhan and allowing Kira to stay with Carl. She is still nonetheless reckless, when she approaches the Police Station to get answers from a female victim of the Castor brothers. Her best moment comes when she is trying to save Kira from Rudy. Across the three series, Sarah has transitioned from a primarily selfish character to one who wants to protect a larger family. But this is a task that is getting harder and harder. 

Alison takes her first real step in her plan to challenge Marcie as she buys Ramone's drugs as well as the contact details of his clients. This plan is undoubtedly going backfire in some way and it will be fascinating to watch how this happens. Donnie is on Alison's side so far, but this may change if the situation becomes more difficult. 

It was also good to see more of Cosima, who is now in a better state of health and able to contribute something to the plot. She and Scott have yet to understand the contents of Professor Duncan's book but they were able to find out more about the supposed loss of the Castor and Leda genomes from the mysterious Dr Nealon. How far Cosima and Scott will be able to pry in to these matters remains to be seen. 

Felix was once again on the sidelines, though he did try and bring Sarah and Siobhan to make up. Kira proved to be a brave girl in the face of Rudy's threat to her life. 

Helena's pregnancy spares her from the stress tests. Her complete ignorance of the 

voigt kamf style testing was interesting. Dr Cody was an interesting character. Using a veneer of kindness to make Helena cooperate with the military. 

This episode sees the welcome return of several supporting characters, including Carl. His attempts to help Kira and Sarah are in keeping with his goody goody attitude so far, but this time we got a hint of his making money from weapons development which adds a nice shade of grey to his character.  While he promises to look after Kira, we know that this is a promise that is difficult to keep. 

Paul Dierdan also makes a return appearance in this episode. He seems like a no nonsense military man for most of the episode, but his brief encounter with Carl suggests that he still genuinely cares for Sarah and wants her away from Dyad. 

Detective Art is back on the police force and is involved in the case which involves the  Castor Clones. Once again, he's the character who gets used by Sarah for information and dumped when his use is up. 

Our final returning character is Mark, the first Castor clone we ever met. His one scene in the episode, where he burns his Castor identification tattoo from his arm, makes it clear that he knows something of his heritage and is trying to put it behind him as he embarks on married life.. With Sarah on his tail he won't be able to hide from the past for very long. 

The episode concludes with the body of Seth to dump and Alison has a campaign to run. It's a much more compelling ending to an episode and one that makes the next episode worth looking forward to. 

8/10

Doctor Who 9x03: Under the Lake

Ever since Innes Lloyd's time on Doctor Who, the 'base under siege' has become a tried and tested plot formula of the program. This episode particularly harks back to The Ark in Space, Revenge of the Cybermen and The Moonbase. As in those stories, the Doctor and companion arrive and explore a seemingly deserted base. They soon meet up with the base crew and discover that people are being killed off by monsters. In base in this story is a 22nd century underwater facility called 'the Drum', built over a military town . The base crew here are a group of scientists and soldiers who have uncovered an old spaceship and the monsters are ghosts of a Tivoli alien and the crew, who attack the crew after they find symbols on the spaceship.

The obligatory base commander is a woman named Cass. She's a fairly standard responsible leader type of person except that she's deaf and has to communicate through sign language. This proves useful in deciphering the message that the ghosts are chanting. It is great that Toby Whithouse has included a deaf character in his tale, however, that doesn't change the fact that she's still a standard base leader archetype.

The rest of the crew were also standard archetypes. The ill fated Pritchard was the annoying corporate representative. Like Burke from Aliens, or even Lux from Doctor Who's own Silence in the Library, he's the kind of character who is always more of a hindrance than a help in these kinds of tales. Unsurprisingly he is killed off for his stupidity. Bennett is the cowardly scientist who only feels compelled to stay because others do. O'Donnell is likable enough  but her one defining trait is that she is a fan of the Doctor, which basically makes her a Scottish Osgood. The last member of the crew is Lunn and I might be missing something but I'm not sure what personality he really has. He just seems to be there to translates Cass' sign language. At least his resistance to the ghosts may make him play a more useful role in the next episode. We'll have to wait and see if these are characters are developed in any way in the next episode.

The ghosts are pretty well realised. The moment when the ghostly Pritchard nearly smashes Lunn's head in with a spanner was particularly nasty and compelling to watch. It's not clear if there's a plot reason why the ghosts walk and don't run after the characters, other than to fulfill the zombie cliche. One of them is a Tivoli, like David Walliams character in The God Complex. Hopefully we'll see the living version next episode otherwise it will be a waste of guest star Paul Kaye.  The fact that they can be locked in a faraday cage somewhat diminishes their threat and it might have been spookier if we, the audience, hadn't known about it so early. Presumably the ghosts will be released and caused havoc again.

Peter Capaldi continues to impress as The Doctor, who is back to being delightfully aloof. The idea that he needs cue cards to tell him to be nice was hilarious. Nevertheless the existence of the cue cards shows that he knows his callousness is something that he needs to deal with. It's nice to see that he is worried about Clara becoming like him. His excitement when he thought the ghosts might be from the real afterlife was also a great moment for the Doctor.

While the Doctor was compelling to watch it seems that Clara has had a complete personality transplant this week. She is now addicted to adventuring to the point where she's taking on some of th Doctor's traits. I suppose we can assume that there's a bigger time gap between this and The Witch's Familiar. Jenna Coleman conveys Clara's developing personality well enough but the character doesn't really contribute much to the plot. She helps to lure the ghosts into a trap, but that role could have been taken by any of the base crew. I hope the writers haven't left it to the last few episodes to actually give her a journey this year otherwise there doesn't seem to have been much justification in keeping Jenna Coleman on for an extra year.

Overall, the story is simple, which I suppose is why fans like it. It's nice to have the Doctor and Clara arrive straight into the adventure instead of meeting up on Earth before hand.However, the adventure as a whole is almost too simple. The dialogue is less snappy than usual. Again some people will find this refreshing from Moffat's more comedy background oriented dialogue, but this is a somewhat less interesting alternative. Nevertheless, the end of the episode hints at more interesting things to come. What was responsible for the flood? What is the content of the capsule from the spacecraft? And what is the reason behind the appearance of the Doctor's ghost outside the station? At a guess I would say that the Doctor's the one inside the capsule. If that's the case then it was too obvious. Hopefully the isolated Clara will be forced to contribute more.

The story is nonetheless well realized by the production team. The base is functional and lit atmospherically enough. The director manages to keep a decent sense of horror. Murray Gold's music was slightly more prominent this week and helped to raise the tension of the action sequences with the ghosts and the flooding. It seems that the set designers had fun with the 22nd century setting and added some amusing little Star Trek easter eggs such as the wall painting with the sailors in yellow, red and blue jumpers to the door code and the '1708'.

Under the Lake is the kind of episode is probably comfort food for older fans, but will probably fail to interest those, like me, who prefer it when the show pushes against its boundaries and stock features. The progressive cast hides a simple tale. Next week may be more interesting, and hopefully make the story as a whole more to my liking.

7/10

Orphan Black 3x01: The Weight of this Combination

The third Series of Orphan Black has been airing in the UK for a couple weeks now although you'd be forgiven for not knowing it, seeing as BBC Three have stuck it on in a ridiculous slot in the early hours of the morning. This poor treatment is nothing new. Back when Series One started airing the show was barely publicized and the episodes were largely rushed through in double bills. On a more positive note, all of the episodes of series three can be viewed on the iplayer. I suppose that this is to get people ready for BBC Three's switch to being an online only channel but it still doesn't justify the tv timeslot. If the Channel can't be bothered to spread the word properly then I guess I'll have to do it through my mediocre reviews.

When we last left the show we'd discovered the existence of the male Project Castor clones as well as Topside's role with the Dyad Institute. Paul Dierdan's links to the military were revealed, and Mrs. S sold Helena out to the military to save Sarah and Kira. There were plenty of questions that needed answering. What would happen to Helena? Who are these Castor Clones? What happened to Rachel and will Cosima recover?

Helena predicament hasn't changed much since last series. The opening of the episode features a happy Helena surrounded by her sisters. Predictably she wakes up in a small box in the military base. It's a fairly cliche beginning which I suppose it was the only way the writers could think to remind viewers of Helena's feelings towards her 'sestras'. Her only company in this box is an imaginary scorpion friend called 'Pupok'. One of the highlights of the show is its ability to mix dark situations with crazy humour and this is a good example. Helena spends the rest of the episode in the box, only to be released at the end by the soldier Castor Clone. She's proved adept at surviving in the past, so it'll be interesting to see how she'll cope in her new situations and whether her captors can really contain her.

The Castor Clones remain mostly shrouded in mystery. Mark is off the radar so far and the Soldier one only appears briefly at the end of the episode. We do at least get to see more of the imprisoned one with the scar who made his debut in last year's cliffhanger. So far he seems to be a generic psychopath type who does manage to give Sarah a clue about the missing Helena. This episode introduces another one with a mustache who beats up Siobhan for information about Professor Ethan Duncan's research. These two clones claim to be operating independently from Paul. The mustached clone frees the psychotic looking one at the end of the episode so it remains to be seen what trouble these two will cause, and where their allegiances ultimately lie.

The most important plot developments took place within the Dyad Institute. Since the end of the last series Marion has gone to Europe. Rachel is recovering from her eye injury and Delphine has taken Rachel's place in Dyad. These circumstance force Delphine and Sarah to make a deal. Sarah must pretend to be Rachel in order to fool Ferdinand, an investigator from Topside while Delphine will look into finding Helena. Alison also helps out by pretending to be a captured Sarah. These scenes are full of tension, and Ferdinand follows in the example of the creepy intimate male agents of the higher powers seeking to control the clones. Ultimately Sarah's charade fools Ferdinand into revealling a plot between him and Rachel to try to kill the Dyad clones. Fortunately, with Delphine's help, the plan is thwarted at the last minute.

Sarah Manning spends much of the episode determined to protect her sisters at any cost, even shutting out Siobhan or attempting to kill Ferdinand in the process. She's as cunning at impersonating her sisters as ever and Tatiana Maslany is as reliable as ever at making Sarah's impersonations convincing while at the same time showing the deeper awkwardness. It was particularly interesting to watch Sarah's violent reaction to the news that her sisters were about to be assassinated. Her attempts to throttle Ferdinand when she thought hope was lost demonstrates how far she can go when pushed. Delphine's intervention ultimately prevents Ferdinand's death, but it will be interesting to see if Sarah

Delphine features prominently in this episode. It appears that she genuinely want to help Sarah for now but she is beginning to distance herself from Cosima because of her responsibilities to Dyad. The moment when she hurts the injured Rachel for information reveals a harsher, more ambitious side. Whether Delphine's new position mean she stays allied with the clones or is forced to become their enemy is something to look out for.

Alison Hendrix continues to be a highlight for the show. This series she intends to run for election as School trustee against a neighbor, Marcie. Campaigning for a public position will no doubt bring some of her background to the surface which will probably create a lot of drama later on. The scene of her disguised as Sarah was a hoot but also filled with tension when Ferdinand started to grope her. With that and the assassin that came to kill her, this is the episode where she has been in the most physical danger. Donnie has got himself fired so it will be interesting to see whether this puts any strain on the family.

Cosima, still suffering from her sickness, spends the episode in Felix' flat. Her relationship with Delphine is shown to be faltering and she shows Scott the book left by Professor Duncan, trusting him to help her over Delphine.

Felix remains the grounded individual helping Sarah out, though both he and Kira contributed very little to the episode. Maria Doyle Kennedy is as a good as ever as Mrs. S, getting to be brave against the Castor Clone but also humble as she pleads Sarah to trust her. Whether she and Sarah will be able to trust each other again remains to be seen.  Art and Carl were completely absent from the episode but hopefully they turn up later on. We also get introduced briefly to another clone, Crystal, responsible for the capture of the psychotic looking Castor clone. She's only briefly seen on security footage so there's little personality to judge her on yet but she may prove more important later on.

As is often the case with first episodes, The Weight of this Combination is concerned with reintroducing the core plot threads while setting up small hints of things to come. It keeps you curious about what happens next but a lot of what is in this episode has been seen before. Hopefully the other episodes will take the show in a new direction.

6/10

The War Doctor comes to Audio

For the first time since 2012, a new Doctor has joined the Big Finish fold. It's not just any Doctor either. It's the War Doctor played by John Hurt. It's exciting enough that it's a new Doctor, but also the fact that Big Finish have secured an actor of John Hurt's caliber to something as obscure as an audio spin off series.

Of course, to use the new cliche, he's not quite the Doctor we were expecting. Many fans have already heard rumours David Tennant and Catherine Tate would be reprising their roles as the Tenth Doctor and Donna for audio adventures. That may yet happen of course but as great as it would be to see one of the best Doctor/Companion teams, I'm even more excited at what we've got right now. It feels inevitable that one day David Tennant would participate in these audios. He has done already as other characters. But John Hurt was a person I never expected to do them. It's great that he's doing this. Fans can get to hear more from this great actor who gets the chance to reprise role in a manner which demands less physically tiring work.

I have no doubt that the Big Finish writers are relishing the opportunity to write for the time war. George Mann's War Doctor book, The Engines of War, only just scratched the surface of this dark time in the Doctor's life and I'm hoping Big Finish can push the darkness and the grittiness even further. Some might argue that stories of the Time War were best left to the next generation of fans to explore. I sympathize with this view, but it's also the case that this is the best time to get John Hurt to participate. Let's hope the quality of the story-lines do justice to the talent of the leading man.

While 2016 is looking to be a gap year for Doctor Who on television, Big Finish is leading the way with more and more promising arrivals from the new series. I've dipped in and out of Big Finish once or twice, but this is certainly making me inclined to look at their catalogue.

Class

When I first read the title of this new Doctor Who spin-off I had a horrible moment of dread where I thought we were getting the 'young Doctor Who' series that the BBC wanted to make during the RTD years. The childhood of the Doctor on Gallifrey is something we really never need to see. Fortunately, this isn't quite as bad as that. It's not particularly exciting news though.

The problem is there's nothing to get excited about. It's a show that happens to be set in a building that's cropped up in Doctor Who once in a while. Jenna Coleman's not going to be in it. There's been no indication yet whether Ellis George will return as Courtney or how much of a connection to the parent show this will have. At the moment it just sounds like Buffy with aliens, or alternatively the Sarah Jane Adventures without Sarah Jane. Something that perhaps could have been developed as its own show without a Doctor Who connection. Those who've read Patrick Ness' writing might have a better idea of whether or not the show will be successful, but that's not me.

It's been strongly suggested for a while now that  Doctor Who's will have an decreased episode count next year. If true then I suppose this will keep the fans entertained until the proper show turns up. Until then we'll just have to wait for further casting and plot details to see if Class is worth getting excited about.

Doctor Who 9x02: The Witch's Familiar

Compared to last week's episode, The Witch's Familiar had a far less impressive opening. As expected, Clara and Missy survived their Dalek encounter through teleportation. Things weren't much better back in the Dalek city where we get a bit of faffing about as the Doctor tries stealing Davros' wheelchair. It's a funny moment but really just exists as padding.

Fortunately, once the Doctor is recaptured we get get the Doctor/Davros conversation we've been looking forward to. The kind of thing the television series hasn't done since,  Revelation of the Daleks. While Julian Bleach's Davros may have been overshadowed by the Daleks and returning companions in The Stolen Earth, here we get to see all the facets of this version of Davros.  First he tries persuading the Doctor that touching the wires will kill all the Daleks, then, weeping crocodile tears over the return of Gallifrey and playing the dying victim. The scene where Davros reveals that he can use his real eyes was one I wasn't particularly keen on. It seemed to defeat the point of having an electronic one in the first place, but it was probably necessary to persuade the Doctor of Davros' sincerity. Julian Bleach made a crying Davros feel in character. Peter Capaldi was no slouch in this conversation either. Where his Doctor was more of a clown last week, here we see the old anger return with Clara's death, tempered with a more sympathetic side as he falls for the weak Davros.

Surprising, the scenes between the Doctor and Davros were not the best bit of the episode. The best bits were actually the scenes of Missy and Clara breaking in to the Dalek City. Missy once again veers on the right line of being funny and dangerous, toying with Clara like a cat with a mouse. Once again, we got to see Missy trying to make the Doctor like her. Last time she handed him a Cyberman army and this time she tried to trick him into shooting a Dalek which actually had Clara inside. The good thing she is definitely surviving for future appearances. The only bad thing about the focus on Missy is it means that Clara once again feels sidelined. Still, there's a whole series left to go to improve on that matter.Seeing her inside the Dalek nicely homaged both Ian Chestertson in the The Daleks story and Oswin in Asylum. It seems Coal Hill teachers and Oswalds are doomed to be Daleks.

With the focus on the four leads, it was inevitable that the Daleks themselves would be side-lined. In this case it was fair enough, because it allowed for more of a focus on Davros. There are more than enough Dalek only stories to be getting along with anyway. Having said that we did get some interesting developments. The notion that they power their guns by hate nicely refers back to a similar notion in Death tot he Daleks. The other interesting idea was the sewers containing dead Daleks. This was not only nicely grim, but also worked as the Chekhov's gun solution to the problem. It was a shame that despite getting Time Lord DNA, there was little time to explore what the implications of that would be.

Although the episode ends happily, there are still some plot threads left dangling. The question of why the Doctor left Gallifrey has been brought up again. Reasons for this have been varied. In the 90s, the New Adventures novels toyed with the idea of 'the Other' who stole the Hand of Omega from Gallifrey so it'll be interesting to see what Steven Moffat does with the idea in 21st century Who, The secrets of the Doctor's confession dial are as yet unknown. The legend of the Hybrid is also up in the air. Was this all resolved here or a hint of future events?

Having reached the end of the two parter it seems the 'Apprentice' and 'Familiar' of the two titles were left up to the viewer. One could argue that the Doctor was the Magician who shaped Davros, his apprentice, when he taught the boy mercy. Then again one could say that Clara is the Doctor's apprentice as she learned from him. It's easier to see Clara as the Witch's Familiar. It's certainly a far cry from the simplicity of the 'slutty titles' that Moffat wanted for the Series 7 'movie poster' stories.

There were plenty of nice easter eggs and callbacks to old episodes for fans, from the 60s through the present. But for all the nods to the past, I am looking forward to fresh take next week. Just the Doctor and Clara in a brand new place with what appears to be brand new characters and monsters. The series goes forward.

8/10